Site Selection lauds Ohio's business climate

Ohio Gov. John Kasich — as well as President Barack Obama — will greet this enthusiastically.

Site Selection magazine has come out with its “Top Business Climate for 2012” rankings, and Ohio takes the No. 2 spot, just after North Carolina. They were followed by Texas, Georgia and Virginia.

The magazine's business climate rankings are determined 50% by an index of tax burden criteria, according to the Tax Foundation and KPMG's Location Matters analysis, and by the states' performance in Conway Data's New Plant Database, which tracks new and expanded business facility activity. The other 50% is determined by a survey of corporate site selectors.

Ohio was in the top 10 in all criteria evaluated by Site Selection. It ranked No. 1 for new manufacturing plants.

All nice if true. But it's fair to point out that for the last decade or more, Ohio has done exceeding well in all Site Selection rankings, and it hasn't exactly been a star economic performer in that time.

Want some more upbeat economic news?

The Associated General Contractors of America reports that construction spending in September “climbed to a nearly three-year high at an annualized rate of $852 billion, as increased spending on houses, apartments and private nonresidential projects outweighed a continuing downturn in public construction.”

Officials said they “expect both the public and private trends to continue” despite the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist, said total construction spending rose 0.6% from August to September and 7.8% since September 2011, “bringing the total to the highest level since October 2009.”

Private residential spending accelerated, increasing by 2.8% compared with August and 21% during the past 12 months. Private nonresidential construction fell 0.1% for the month but is up 8.8% for the past year.

Meanwhile, public construction shrank 0.8% in September and 4.2% year-over-year, according to the group.

Some wealthy donors “appear to be acting as a kind of SWAT team for Democratic and Republican candidates by pouring last-minute contributions into competitive House races,” according to this New York Times story.

Among the beneficiaries is U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat who appears to be in a tight race with Republican Rep. Jim Renacci.

The supporters of Rep. Sutton are Mary and Steven Swig, a California couple whose business interests include a real estate firm and a lingerie company. They sank at least $15,000 this month into seven campaigns in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, The Times reports.

There's some encouraging data in the latest quarterly update from Downtown Cleveland Alliance about the state of business development downtown.

For instance, the Alliance says office market occupancy downtown rose to 81.4% in the third quarter from 77.4% in the like period of 2011.

Housing occupancy held steady — at a stellar 97%.

The Alliance says 15 new restaurants have opened in 2012, “with even more in the pipeline for the near future.” In addition, more than 1,000 new apartments are projected to be available downtown within 18 months.

An Ohio native writes an insightful essay for TheMillions.com about the state of Midwestern literature.

Eric Shonkwiler , a Wittenberg University graduate, writes that there's a new, more hard-edge tone in novels and stories about the Midwest from local authors.

“For all the Midwest's evenhandedness, much of it has been embittered by the recession, and the work ethic we're known for, when without direction, becomes destructive,” he writes. “The literature of this Midwest shows this side of us, the hardened and hungry folk.”

The downside? “It forgets, largely, the generous people I know they co-exist with,” Mr. Shonkwiler concludes.